Attorney Hank Coxe, one of 37 members of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, said the group’s nearly 14 months of work to consider possible amendments to the state’s most fundamental law was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“It was an interesting process and I made some friends,” said Coxe, who addressed the Rotary Club of Jacksonville at its meeting Monday at the Omni Hotel.

He said the process and its results could have, and should have, been more aligned with the original intent of the revision that’s conducted every 20 years.

“It was supposed to be a citizens’ review of the constitution,” he said.

It was instead controlled by politics, Coxe said, based on the commission’s structure in terms of appointments to the board.

The commission comprises the state attorney general, 15 members appointed by the governor, nine appointed by the Senate president, nine appointed by the speaker of the House and three appointed by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, one of whom was Coxe.

When the commission was sworn in on March 20, 2017, Coxe was one of three Democrats among the 37 members, and many were elected officials already planning for their 2019 campaigns.

“They were going to do whatever didn’t jeopardize their getting re-elected,” Coxe said.

The political atmosphere guided the commission’s deliberations as the group traveled the state, conducting 15 public meetings to hear what Florida’s citizens wanted to see changed in the constitution. It then distilled thousands of public comments into the set of amendments that will appear on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.

Coxe cited one revision in particular – a proposal to include in the constitution a bill of rights for victims of crime. It was patterned after California’s “Marsy’s Law.”

He said Florida has in place some of the strongest protections for victims in the U.S.

In addition, he’s concerned that if approved by at least 60 percent of voters and enacted, the amendment could negatively affect how criminal justice is achieved by giving victims much more authority over the operations of the courts.

“It’s touted as a victim’s rights law, but it would turn the system inside-out,” Coxe said.

For example, “It would allow a victim to change a trial date that was already set by a judge.”

The most frustrating issue for Coxe was the commission’s rejection of even considering amending the constitution to include more stringent laws regulating access to assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

The change was proposed by families of students murdered in the Parkland school mass shooting just days after the tragedy.

“All hell broke loose and the Rules Committee said it was too late to be introduced,” he said.

Another amendment on the ballot Coxe cited is the proposed amendment that would prohibit wagering on greyhound races.

“The Legislature could have dealt with that issue any time,” but the majority of the commission “wanted an emotional issue,” he said.

Amendments on the ballot

Amendment 1: Increased Homestead Property Tax Exemption

If approved, this amendment would raise the portion of a home’s value that can be exempted from non-school property taxes. The Legislature voted to refer the exemption to the ballot in 2017, and the proposed changes would apply to the assessed value of a homestead property between $100,000 and $125,000, raising the maximum exemption to $75,000.

Amendment 2: Limitations on Property Tax Assessments

This amendment would make permanent an existing cap on non-homestead property assessments. Such property tax assessment increases have been limited to 10 percent of the previous year’s assessed value since 2008, when another constitutional amendment that capped the increases passed.

Amendment 3: Voter Control of Gambling in Florida

This is a citizen-initiated amendment that would give voters the sole right to decide whether to expand casino gambling in Florida. That authority currently rests with both the Legislature and voters, through constitutional amendment.

Amendment 4: Voting Restoration Amendment

Another petition-drive amendment, this would restore voting rights to former felons if they have served their sentence, with the exception of those who were convicted of crimes such as murder or sex offenses. For the past seven years, the state has required that ex-felons wait at least five years after their sentences are complete to apply to regain voting rights. The current process can take a decade or more because of a requirement that the state Clemency Board consider each request during its four meetings a year. If approved, about 1.5 million people in Florida could be affected.

This amendment would require a two-thirds super-majority vote in the Legislature to impose, approve or raise state taxes and fees.

Constitution Revision Commission amendments

The other amendments are placed on the ballot by the Constitution Revision Commission. The commission “grouped” some of its proposals, meaning that in some cases, voters will be asked to approve or reject multiple proposals in batches.

Amendment 8, that related to charter schools, school board term limits and civics education, was challenged in court and then removed from the ballot because the court found its language was misleading.

Amendment 6: Rights of Crime Victims; Judges

This amendment links three proposals that create a bill of rights for crime victims and set new criteria for judges. The bill of rights is modeled after “Marsy’s Law” that was enacted in California. The other proposals in the group would increase the mandatory retirement age for judges to 75 from 70 and also would bar judges from deferring to administrative agencies’ interpretations of a rule or statute when ruling in cases involving those laws.

Amendment 7: First Responder and Military Member Survivor Benefits; Public Colleges and Universities

This amendment would provide state college tuition for the survivors of first responders and military members killed on duty, require university trustees to agree by a two-thirds majority to raise college fees (not including tuition) and establish the state college system in the Florida Constitution.

This combined amendment would impose a ban on oil and gas drilling in state-owned waters along with a proposal to add vaping to the ban on smoking indoors.

Amendment 10: State and Local Government Structure and Operation

This amendment links four proposals: Have the state’s legislative session start in January rather than March in even-numbered years (the Legislature currently changes its dates by statute); create a counter-terrorism office; make the state veterans affairs department constitutionally required; and require the five county-level offices to be elected, comprising tax collector, property appraiser, supervisor of elections, clerk of circuit court and sheriff.

This is a proposal to remove a provision that prohibits “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning property, delete language approving a high-speed rail system and remove the state’s Savings Clause, which prohibits retroactively applying the amendment of a criminal statute to sentencing for a crime committed before the change.

Amendment 12: Lobbying and Abuse of Office by Public Officers

This is a stand-alone proposal that would bar a public official from lobbying during his or her term in office and for six years following, and restrict current public officers from using their office for personal gain.

Amendment 13: Ends Dog Racing

Also a single proposal, it would end by 2020 commercial dog racing involving wagering.